DNA in the News

Two companies recently teamed up to offer their services to families with roots in the African Diaspora.Slave Descendants Freedom Society and Diversity Restoration Solutions are bringing a seminar series to 50 cities in the United States, Canada, and Europe titled â€œRestoring African American Families Using Genealogy and History.â€The seminar will focus on topics such as slavery in America, the importance of African American family genealogy as it relates to slavery, and 13 steps to restoring a family with genealogy and history.According to a recent press release:

â€œThis interactive seminar series is a stepping stone in that it seeks to help African Americans find their self identity, understand the benefits of restoring the core family base, and move forward in leveraging resources as a people,â€ said Sheppard, author of â€œAncestorâ€™s Call,â€ a genealogy and historical accounting of the Grandy family and Moses Grandy, an ancestor whose story was originally told in a rare 1843 slave narrative. â€œItâ€™s important that we lay the foundation for generations coming after us; our children and grandchildren need to know who they are in order to receive their inheritance. This seminar honors the contributions of our ancestors but with an emphasis that this recognition should not occur just during Black History Month, but as a way of life, everyday. Participants will come away with a greater understanding of themselves, an action plan for tracing their family tree and hopefully a stronger appreciation for family and desire to pay it forward in their community.â€A pdf brochure is available.

If you missed Ira Flatow’s interview with Megan Smolenyak on NPR’s Science Friday, you can download the podcast in a number of different formats at NPR.Â The interview is the result of this week’s big announcement that Ancestry.com is teaming up with Sorenson Genomics to offer DNA testing.Â Great job Megan!

Today represents a brief break from genetic genealogy, in a way, but I thought the topic was interesting enough to talk about.

BRCA2 (Breast Cancer Type 2 susceptibility protein) is a tumor suppressor gene involved in the repair of DNA damage.BRCA2 binds to and regulates another protein (the product of the RAD51 gene) to fix DNA breaks caused by any number of factors.BRCA2 was discovered in 1995 by Professor Michael Stratton and Dr. Richard Wooster in cooperation with the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.

To date, researchers have identified 450 different mutations in the BRCA2 gene, some of which unfortunately cause an increased risk of cancer.Typically, the mutated gene produces an abnormally short protein that is unable to help the cell fix DNA breaks.Thus, mutations can accumulate and eventually lead to cancer (breast, ovarian, prostate, or pancreatic).

A June 18th article from MSNBC about online family trees and social networking revealed another tidbit about 23andMe. According to the article (and no source of the information is given), 23andMe “plans to charge $1,000 for an extensive genetic profile and features to help track down lost relatives.”

I’m not exactly sure what that means. Are distant cousins lost relatives? Or is the unknown birth mother of an adopted child a lost relative? Given 23andMe’s interest in genetic genealogy, I’m guessing that it’s for general interest, rather than just for people looking for birth parents. Or perhaps they’re doing both – it’s really not much of a difference. It’s all about building a database, of course. Without the ability to compare results to a database, the usefulness of DNA testing for genealogical purposes can still be informative but is limited.

The following is an interview with Katherine Hope Borges, founder of ISOGG (The International Society of Genetic Genealogy), done at the 2007 SoCal Genealogical Jamboree. ISOGG has about 5,000 members and is growing rapidly. ISOGG has MANY great services on their website, including the “Founding Fathers DNA Page”, and an up-coming Presidential DNA page.

If you liked the video, there are lots more at Roots Television!! If you’re interested in genetic genealogy and haven’t checked out Roots Television yet, you don’t know what you’re missing.

An article in yesterdayâ€™s Mount Vernon News highlighted the use of genetic genealogy to identify POWâ€™s from the Korean War who had died in North Korean detention facilities.

The Korean War Project, sponsored by the Department of Defense, uses genetic tests, especially mtDNA (because mtDNA is so hardy), to match remains to living family members. This type of identification has been used for years now.

One of the volunteers for the Project, Carol Kiley, has found 21 matches in the three months sheâ€™s been tracking down families.Ms. Kiley says that her background in genealogy helps her locate the families of missing soliders.

The article discusses the case of Pvt. Robert Wayne McNeil who served in F Company of the 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division.He was captured as a POW on April 25, 1951, and died thereafter.Remains have been discovered that might be McNeilâ€™s, and Ms. Kiley is attempting to locate a sister, niece, or female cousin for mtDNA testing.

James Stuart, known as King James VI in Scotland and King James the I in England and Ireland, issued an edict in 1603 that abolished the surname MacGregor and declared that everyone named MacGregor or Gregor must renounce the name or suffer death, all in response to the murder of the King’s Forester, who himself had hanged some MacGregors for poaching. A bounty of 1,000 merks (apparently a great deal of money) was placed on the heads of the clan leaders, with 100 merks for other members of the clan.

This the origin of Rob Roy, also known as Red MacGregor, or Robert Roy MacGregor. For the next 200 years The Clan Gregor endured this persecution. Men were killed while women and children were sold into slavery in the New World. Finally, in 1774, the Act of Proscription against the clan was repealed.

A study conducted by researchers at the Institute of Human Genetics at the Center for Life in Newcastle, Englanddiscovered that only 50% of males with the last name Robson can be traced back to a recent single ancestor.The research, commissioned to create a new exhibit called â€œThe Robson Encyclopedia,â€ compared 12 markers from the Y-chromosomes of 100 male volunteer Robsons.

Apparently the Border Reiver clan of the Robsons in the TyneValley was notorious in the 1600â€™s and was made famous in a book called â€œThe Steel Bonnetsâ€ by George MacDonald Fraser.According to one site:

â€œThe term Border Reivers describes a number of English and Scottish families who fought a seemingly endless series of bloody confrontations from the 13th Century to the mid 17th Century. Sheep stealing and burning each otherâ€™s homes were part of everyday Border Reiver life – they were rugged, tough people who lived by their own laws.â€

Yesterday The Jewish Press announced the â€œKohen and Levi Conference: A Gathering of the Tribe.â€The conference, to be held on July 15-19, 2007, is hosted in Jerusalem by The Center for Kohanim.The Center was founded in 1985 to â€œpromote identity and knowledge among Kohanim the world over, and increase their feelings of awareness and commitment to their heritage as Kohanim.â€The conference has a main page, a press release, and a brochure (pdf).According to the press release:

Recent scientific research and DNA testing has proven that todayâ€™s descendents of the biblical Kohanim are genetically related. Molecular geneticists have discovered the â€œCohen Modal Haplotypeâ€ which is a Y- chromosome DNA lineage signature shared by a majority of both Ashkenazi and Sephardi Kohanim. This indicates a direct patrilineal descent of present-day Kohanim from a single ancient ancestor, genetically dated to have lived approximately 3,300 years ago, a time corresponding to the Exodus from Egypt.

Artist Ulla Plougmand-Turner has created paintings of The Seven Daughters of Eve using paint that contains reconstructed ancient DNA manufactured by Oxford Ancestors.

Most genetic genealogists are very familiar with Bryan Sykesâ€™ Seven Daughters of Eve, the 7 â€œclan mothersâ€ (Ursula, Xenia, Helena, Velda, Tara, Katrine, and Jasmine) from whom the majority of Europeans are believed to obtain their mitochondrial DNA.Note that there are many more â€œclan mothersâ€ located throughout the world â€“ I, for instance, am descended from clan Aiyana.

The exhibition was commissioned by Professor Bryan Sykes, the head of Human Genetics at OxfordUniversity and the founder of Oxford Ancestors.Prof. Sykes met Ms. Plougmand-Turner by chance when he was taking DNA samples from villagers at Longleat.

About

The Genetic Genealogist examines the intersection of traditional genealogical techniques and modern genetic research. The blog also explores the latest news and developments in the related field of personal genomics.